Two movies about hunt for bin Laden coming late 2012

The search and killing of Osama bin Laden by a U.S. Navy SEALs team is the subject of two films, with one potentially reaching theatres in early fall.

Both Codename Geronimo and Zero Dark Thirty look at the successful mission by Navy SEALs to track and hunt down one of the world's most wanted terrorists. Code Name Geronimo, starring William Fichtner, Xhibit, Freddy Rodriguez, and Anson Mount, has so far impressed The Weinstein Company based on a just-finished trailer. It's reported the deal to acquire rights to Codename is in the $2 million range.

It's rumoured the film may be able to be released in early fall, close to the U.S. presidential election.

Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow

David Shankbone

The other film looking at the 9/11 mastermind is Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker). The filmmakers described their film, still being scripted, to Deadline as: "Our upcoming film project about the decade long pursuit of Bin Laden has been in the works for many years and integrates the collective efforts of three administrations, those of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, as well as the cooperative strategies and implementation by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency."

It's already attracting major interest: the film has been acquired for distribution outside the United States by Universal Pictures International (UPI), according to Twitch. Sony plans on releasing Zero Dark Thirty on Dec. 19. Chris Pratt, Joel Edgerton and Nash Edgerton have been added to a cast that also includes Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Mark Strong, Edgar Ramirez, Kyle Chandler and Jennifer Ehle.